Building a Statewdie Coordinated ESA Systen

Building a Statewide
Coordinated ESA System:
Nebraska’s Story of the ESU Coordinating Council
2012 AESA Annual Conference
Our Panelists
• Matt Blomstedt, Executive Director ESUCC
• Marge Beatty, Past President ESUCC
▫ ESU 16 Administrator; Ogallala, NE
• Ron Fielder, Strategic Planning Facilitator
▫ Former Iowa AEA Administrator
• Craig Burford, OESCA Executive Director
▫ Ohio ESC Association
About Nebraska’s ESUs
• 17 ESUs statewide
• Political Subdivisions
• See map
History and Purpose of ESUs
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Originally created in 1965 by the Legislature

LB 301 Sens. Ross Rasmussen &
Richard Marvel

Supported by County Supts, NSEA,
UNL Ed Admin, among others
Nationally trends toward intermediate
educational entities were supported by rural
education entities
Purposes... equity, scale, opportunity etc.
Discussion: What other forces
developed ESUs?
• Originally were voluntary for school districts
• Nebraska had many elementary only districts
▫ Roughly 2000 districts back in the late 1960s
▫ Now Nebraska has 249 K-12 districts
• Elementary & Secondary Education Act
▫ ESEA – 1965
• Advent of Special Education and need for
coordinated management
• State legislated “Core Services” in 1998
ESU’s Role & Mission
Include
Core Services
Core Services
Defined in 79-1204
Shall provide
schools with access
to services that…
Role and Mission
of ESUs also
states…
• Technology: Including Distance Education
• Instructional Materials Services
• Staff Development
• ESU/School Districts have identified as necessary services
• Are difficult for most individual districts to effectively and
efficiently provide on their own
• Can be efficiently provided by each ESU
• Can be adequately funded to ensure that the service is provided
equitably
• ESUs shall provide Core Services to all
member school districts
• Act in a cooperative and supportive role with
NDE & School districts (enhanced also by Rule
84)
How are ESUs Funded?(rough estimates)
• Property Tax - (17%)
▫ Currently lid of 1.5 cents per $100 of valuation
▫ Historically, up to 3.5 cents plus .5 for technology
infrastructure
• Other Local receipts (55%)
▫ Contracted Services & district consortia
▫ Misc. other local
• Core Services & Tech Infrastructure State Aid (9%)
▫ Established in 1997
• Other State Sources (5%)
• Federal Title / IDEA (14%)
ESU Revenue Sources
Contracted
Services to
School
Districts
Core
Services
Aid
Property
Tax Base
State and
Federal
Categorical
Funds
ESU Core Services:
A Complex Decision Making Process
School Districts:
Nebraska Department of
• 2/3 representing at least 50%
• School Superintendents
• Annually approve the core services
offering from ESUs
• See 79-1242
Education:
• Revised Rule 84/ESU Accreditation
• Strategic Planning with NDE/ESUCC
• Jointly establish meetings to annually
establish the focus and coordination of
core services on priorities and needs that
are identified through the analysis of data.
ESU Core
Services
ESU Coordinating Council:
ESU Board:
• ESUCC Strategic Priorities / Professional
Development
• Rule 84 w/ NDE joint planning
• ESUCC Statewide projects and
coordination
• General decision making about ESU
• Levy Rate
• Staffing
The evolution of statewide projects
and the creation of the ESUCC

Several statewide projects developed
Cooperative purchasing – Late 1960s
Instructional Materials - 1970s
“telecomputing” resources / internet
through LB 348 (Sen Withem) - 1993
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Distance Education (several iterations)

Late 90s / Early 2000s

Distance Ed Enhancement and
subsequent taskforce proposal
through LB 1208
The evolution of statewide projects
and the creation of the ESUCC

Creation of ESUCC



2006 Legislative interim study on
ESUs (LR 336)
Study proposed several options and
changes in ESU related issues
Ultimately resulted in LB 603 in 2007

Rolled distance ed and statewide
functions under the ESUCC
2012-13 ESUCC Structure
ESUCC
Executive
Committee
Standing and Ad
Hoc Committees
Executive Director
ESUCC General
Functions/Staff
Project/Initiative
Staff
Cooperative
Purchasing
SPED/Student
Records System
Professional
Development
Distance
Education
ESUPDO
PDO
Affiliates
BlendEd Initiative
NWEA
Consortium
Instructional
Materials
eLearning
ESUCC’s Focus
• Partnerships
• Professional Development
• Efficient and Effective statewide
services
▫ Prior to ESUCC, all projects were
independent. The focus on effective
collaboration, processes, and strategic
management have led to major initiatives
in several areas including PD, Coop, &
BlendEd.
ESUCC Project Areas
SPED/SRS
Distance Ed
Professional
Development
BlendEd
LMS Hosting
I-Mat
Cooperative
Purchasing
ESUCC formation and planning
• ESUCC Formed July 1, 2008
▫ Statewide projects hosted by 5 fiscal agents across
the state
▫ Creation of a Master Services Agreement
• Executive Director hired December, 2008
▫ What should the ESUCC be?
• Projects remained “independent” until 2010
▫ Effort to bring projects under a single structure
 Presented in March of 2010
 Implemented by September 1, 2010
This is what we do...
• http://www.funnyplace.org/stream.php?id=8593
Planning Sessions evolved
• April, 2010: Focus on ESUCC structure and
adopting plans
▫ Facilitated by Margaret McIntyre and Matt
 Margaret, a retired staff developer helped set a
framework for early conversations
▫ Adopted new more centralized structure
• October, 2010: Broadened the audience
▫ Included ESU Professional Development leadership
▫ Nebraska Department of Education
 Nebraska Commissioner of Ed and others
Critical Role of 3rd Party Facilitation
• Fall, 2010:
▫ Marge Beatty becomes ESUCC President
▫ October, 2010 retreat
 ‘treading water’
▫ Recommends Ron Fielder for our next steps
• Series of 3, one-day sessions
▫ April, 2011: Set initial framework/vision
▫ October, 2011: Established goals & objectives
▫ April, 2012: Established some action plans based
on strategic priority areas
ESUCC Strategic Priority Areas
• ESUCC Adopted Strategic Priority Areas in
January, 2012
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ESUCC Processes
Accountability and Communication
Partnerships with Stakeholders
Technology Infrastructure and Integration
Discussion: How did we arrive at our
planning process?
• Marge & Ron:
▫ What did you see as the key needs for ESUCC?
• Ron:
▫ Talk us through your recollections of that process?
▫ You shared with us processes in other states at the
time, how did that help shape our conversations?
• Craig & Matt:
▫ From your roles, how do you see working across
ESAs to constructively plan?
Nebraska’s Story Continues
• Strategic Priorities have helped establish new
focus and build partnerships
▫ Professional Development is evolving
 Closer Work with Nebraska Department of
Education
▫ Evolving projects:
 Strategically organizing projects such as our new
initiative BlendEd
▫ Increasing direct formal partnerships
ESU Professional Development
ESUPDO
Leadership
Committee
Staff Development
Affiliate (SDA)
Technology
Assistance Group
(TAG)
Network
Operations
Committee (NOC)
ESU Special
Populations
Directors (ESPD)
Instructional
Materials affiliate
(I-Mat)
PDO Leadership Committee
Professional Development Goals
• Statewide, systematic PD
• Data informed collaborative process in
partnership with NDE (Rule 84)
• Online Professional Development “platform”
▫ Including PD content systems, LMS, etc
▫ Groundwork established by statewide
collaboration on professional learning networks
and content area cadres.
▫ Other PD content available
Overview of Rule 84
• Section 006
Rule 84 Joint Planning Objectives
• Establish a focus and coordination plan for
necessary core services that will be considered
joint initiatives
• Just met with on October 22, 2012
BlendEd Goals
• Organize existing projects around a common
theme as the contribution to Nebraska Virtual
Partnership and other statewide collaborative
efforts.
• Structure professional development around
Blended Education and technology integration
for schools
• Promote school improvement through enhanced
course offerings and student experiences
BlendEd Systems and Plans
• Distance Education Scheduling & Brokering:
▫
Currently provided through Renovo and the Nebraska Virtual Instruction Source
▫
Hosting of ANGEL /Blackboard and parallel services
▫
Learn360 is provided as a statewide subscription media service and also will host "Nebraska
Titles" purchased by the ESUCC through the Instructional Materials (IMAT) project
• Learning Management System Administration:
• Media on Demand (IMAT):
• Local Content Hosting Planning:
▫
This service is still in development but will eventually provide a learning object repository and
compliment subscription media. The initiative effort will work with ESUPDO affiliate groups
including I-Mat and NOC to develop plan for implementation.
• Lightweight Directory Access Protocol / LDAP Planning:
▫
This service is still in development and planning stages among the ESUPDO/NOC affiliate
group but will provide a framework for directory authentication into digital services. The
initiative effort will work with ESUPDO/NOC and others as necessary to develop plan for
implementation.
Nebraska Virtual Partnership
•
•
•
•
•
www.nebraskavirtual.org
NET
UNL-ISHS
NDE
ESUCC
National Repository of Online Courses
• ESUCC Sponsors NROC for K-12
ESUCC’s Initiatives for Digital/Virtual
Education
• BlendEd was established by the ESUCC for 2012-13
Section 1. Purpose of BlendEd Initiative and Projects. The ESUCC
shall provide distance education services including brokering and
facilitating the exchange of distance education courses, the administration
of learning management systems, and the assessment of distance
education needs and evaluation of distance education services as
provided for in NEB. REV. STAT. § 79-1248 and other state statutes and
regulations. Additionally, the ESUCC is charged with the administration of
statewide initiatives and provision of statewide services among other
duties in NEB. REV. STAT. § 79-1246. The ESUCC also has managed
statewide services in “core services” as that term is defined in statute,
including instructional materials services. The purpose of the BlendEd
Initiative is to assure cost-efficient and equitable delivery of digital
education opportunities in partnership with educational service units,
school districts, and other potential partners. The BlendEd Initiative will
unify ESUCC projects and seeks to collaborate to provide students and
school districts across the state with access to a mix of different learning
environments to best support the combination of traditional face-to-face
classroom methods with more technology-mediated activities.
Distance Education Brokering
• Renovo and Nebraska Virtual Instruction Source
Planning stages: I-Mat Digital Delivery
Committee
• I-Mat
continues to
work on plans
to present to
ESUCC
▫ Such as this
LOR diagram
prepared by
I-Mat
Making Strategic Decisions
• ESUCC continues to centralize digital resources
and capacities for ESUCC projects as services
directly available on state network based on
technology priorities
• These decisions have led to other opportunities
to collaborate with a variety of partners
▫ Opportunity for strategic partnerships through
cooperative purchasing of digital and virtual
offerings
Making Strategic Investments
• Start with identified goals of ESUCC
• Include goals of other partners and participants
▫ Professional Development
 Variety of partnerships with state administrators group, NDE,
school districts, and NWEA
 Data driven focus
▫ Cooperative Purchasing & Special Ed Projects
 ESM Solutions & SRS system
• Scalable support systems in technology
▫ Federated systems approach
▫ Content sharing for p-12 and even higher ed
• NDE projects and supports
▫ Digital resources
▫ Regional system of support
▫ True collaboration
Panel Discussions:
• Ron and Craig –
▫ How are other states working with there state
departments of education?
▫ What are some thoughts about statewide
coordination of efforts that Nebraska and other
states should be thinking about?
▫ State and Federal level expectations?
 Accreditation of ESUs in Nebraska is moving toward
AdvancEd process?
 What are you seeing in Ohio, Iowa, & other areas